Forcible Stops: Police and Citizens Speak Out

• Author: Christine S. Barrow,John A. Eterno,Eli B. Silverman
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12684
• Published date: 01 March 2017
• Date: 01 March 2017

Forcible Stops: Police and Citizens Speak Out 181

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 77, Iss. 2, pp. 181–192. © 2016 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12684.

Forcible Stops: Police and Citizens Speak Out

Eli B. Silverman is professor emeritus

at John Jay College of Criminal Justice

and the Graduate Center of City University

of New York. He previously served with

the U.S. Department of Justice and the

National Academy of Public Administration.

His recent publications include

The

Crime Numbers Game

:

Management by

Manipulation

(CRC Press, 2012) and articles

in

Journal of Police Studies

and

Justice

Quarterly

.

E-mail: estcompany@optonline.net

Christine S. Barrow is assistant

professor in the Department of Criminal

Justice at Molloy College. She earned a PhD

in criminal justice from Rutgers University

in 2012. Dr. Barrow has spent several

years performing research on urban youth

involvement in community organizations.

She is author of a book chapter titled “A

Second Chance: Delinquency Prevention

among Special Education Students” and

coauthor of a chapter titled “Unreasonable

Suspicion: Youth and Policing in NYC.”

E-mail: cbarrow@molloy.edu

John A. Eterno is professor and

associate dean in the Department of

Criminal Justice and Legal Studies at Molloy

College, New York. He retired from the New

York City Police Department as captain. He

has won awards for his teaching, research,

and service. He is author or editor of six

books, numerous book chapters, and

peer-reviewed and other materials. He has

appeared as an expert for media such as

CBS, National Public Radio, and ABC.

E-mail: jeterno@molloy.edu

Abstract : A recent federal district court decision found that the New York City Police Department engaged in

unconstitutional policing. Officers stopped millions of minority young men over the span of several years. Most of

those stopped were innocent of any wrongdoing. This article uses qualitative and quantitative research methods to

investigate these inequities, examining the views of both the police and those who were stopped. The authors find

that pressure on officers emanating from headquarters was responsible for much of the illegal behavior by lower-level

officers. Additionally, youth in minority neighborhoods felt mistreated by the police; this led to distrust in the police.

The authors suggest solutions to ameliorate this painful episode in police practice. The article concludes with specific

recommendations such as reducing management pressure on officers and police developing community partnerships.

Practitioner Points

• The New York City Police Department needs to adjust its style of policing so that it does not place excessive

pressure on officers to simply write stop-and-frisk reports.

• These policing tactics have resulted in weak police–community relationships, particularly with male minority

youth.

• It is recommended that police legitimacy be a priority.

• Officers need to be more proactive and visible throughout their shifts and not focused on making numbers.

• Police agencies need to consider community partnerships.

John A. Eterno

Christine S. Barrow

Molloy College

Eli B. Silverman

City University of New York

T he public administration literature stresses

the importance of collaborative partnerships

between police and communities (Choi and

Choi 2012 ). Yet for decades there has been a strained

relationship between police and minorities in the

United States, a focal point of which can be seen in

forcible stop-and-frisk tactics.

This article analyzes data from both police and

citizens to comprehend this relationship in the

context of the stop-and-frisk activities of the New

York City Police Depar tment (NYPD). The research

suggests that crime will decline if police–community

partnerships are active and vibrant. However, police

performance management has developed a very

aggressive, numbers-driven style of management and

police activities that has tended to alienate citizens

and sow distrust between police and communities

(Eterno and Silverman 2012 ). This management

style has been very popular since 1994, when New

York City substantially reformed its police managerial

and operational systems. The keystone of those

reforms was CompStat (“compare statistics”), a

police performance management system devised to

accurately measure, record, target, and combat crime.

CompStat was originally created to provide increased

authority and discretion to local police levels. Some

suggest that it gradually morphed into a top-down,

centralized, bureaucratic managerial control system

based on “broken windows” (Eterno and Silverman

2012 ) that, despite various interpretations, has

generally been used by the NYPD to mean zero

tolerance and enforcement of even minor violations

(Eterno 2001 ). Many have questioned its effectiveness

(Fagan and Davies 2000 ; Greene 1999 ; Harcourt

2001 ). A recent U.S. Department of Justice (2016)

report on Baltimore policing raises similar concerns.

The CompStat system is not only important in New

York but also has been widely imitated in policing

elsewhere and has served as a model for a more

generalized offshoot called CitiStat (Gerrish 2016 ;

Radin 2015 ). Since CompStat was first unveiled by

the NYPD in 1994, a survey by the Police Foundation

for the National Institute of Justice (Weisburd et al.

2001 ) revealed, one-third of the nation ’ s 515 largest

police departments had implemented a CompStat-like

program by 2001 and 20 percent were planning to do

so. The same survey found that about 70 percent of

police departments with CompStat programs reported